It's general acknowledgment that the contemporary machines are manufactured in two basic models: front load or top load. The top load machines receive the clothes in a cylinder vertically assembled, with a central agitator and having an articulated lid at the superior base. The front load machines, in turn, have an horizontally assembled cylinder, without central agitator, but with a rotating basket which washes the clothes by tipping; it has a front airtight door provided with glass viewer.
The object of the present description is applied to top load type machines that, in general, are supplied with a water reservoir which is fixedly assembled, provided with a perforated basked with alternated/pulsing movement where the clothes are accommodated. At the bottom of the basket and at the center of the same the agitator element is assembled, integrated to the pulsing rotation system of the machine which also includes a washing system comprising power feeding mechanism assembled below and outside the reservoir which transfers the power necessary to the washing, as well as the duct for water inflow and outflow.
The agitating elements, in turn, present different configurations and they are very important for these types of washing machines, because, along with the pulsing movement of the basket, they promote a water eddy able to move the clothes in different directions, making possible to the detergent and water perform the washing along with the friction between the clothes. A preferential standard for washing a load of clothes, produced by the pulsing movement of the basket and agitator, specially by the fins practiced on the agitator and, in some cases, also at the internal surface of the basket, comprises the action of revolving the clothes items initially downward (to the bottom of the basket), then radially outside (against the basket's wall) and finally upward, along the peripheral wall of the basket, completing a cycle which is continued and repeated during a certain time of the washing program.
In a general modality, the agitator comprises a base portion, generally in a cylinder shape, which from the center, a central tower is elevated, so that, both at base surface and peripheral surface of the tower can have multiple fins or external projections, generally distributed in a radial way.
The clothes washing machines market reveals a certain diversity of models of fins applied both at the agitator and basket's wall, because the shape and quantity of them, applied to the system, have big influence on the type of wash that the machine can perform, in other words, which type of clothes that model of machine is able to wash, as well as the effectiveness of that machine's washing.
It's known, among the qualified ones, that the height of the fins is also object of studies, because higher fins, in other words, more elevated with regards to the surface of the base and tower, have a good function during the clothes washing, in other words, they produce bigger agitation of the water and, consequently, bigger movement and friction between the clothes, but they are not a good option during the clothes' centrifugation or pre-drying, because, in this step, the higher fins can damage or even shred some pieces which tissue is fragile or more delicate.
For this reason, is common to find washing machines which fins present dimensioned height between the average and low graduation, up to 8 mm, aiming to produce certain agitation during the washing, at a rate of aggressiveness which objective the cleaning of the clothes, avoiding, however, that when drying, the height of the fins does not damage the tissue during the pre-drying (centrifugation). However, the average height of the fins does not meet a wide range of tissues which need bigger efforts during washing.
Therefore, it's agreed between the manufacturers that the average height, currently employed on clothing washing machines, is not the ideal one, mainly when it's about washing clothes which tissues have bigger resistance to deceleration, such as jeans, wool coats, sneakers and others and then, there is not a constant search for improvements related to this subject.
An example is found on document n. PI 9601531-4, of claimant's own ownership, which is presented one or more mobile devices or accessories to be fit in corresponding inferior fins of the agitator. The referred mobile devices are coupled when it's necessary to wash clothes of more resistant tissue and/or sneakers which can be withdrawal after accomplishment of the service, when the fins come back to their original configuration.
Although the effectiveness on meeting the users' needs, it's noted that the mobile devices depend, necessarily, on the action of the user for their installation and withdrawal, which is not always performed by the same who, when not installing the mobile devices, does not use the ideals proposed by the object.
Another document, n. PI 983785 presents means which aim to obtain the result of a less aggressive wash when on pre-drying or centrifugation, comprising, for such, a perforated basket for clothing containment and inside a tank, being such tank vertically displaceable with regard to the wash liquid level in the tank, between centrifugation and an agitation position, where it remains rotationally stationary. Such characteristics reveal a direction for reducing the efforts over the clothes during pre-drying, but it depends on a complex mechanism for vertically moving the basket, employing gears and other components of addable costs to the final value of the machine.
Verifying the current state of the art, it was certified that some clothes washing machines known by ‘wash-dry’, in other words, from the type which use devices for drying the clothes with hot air after washing, are equipped with mobile fins internal to the washing basket, and where the said fins or ribs are elevated or collected with regards to the basket's wall, aiming to detach the clothes from the wall soon after the centrifugation, in other words, just before starting the hot air drying, providing a better clothes accommodation.